Steve Wozniak: Visits Horse, Disses Siri

Steve Wozniak: Big fan of animals, not so big a fan of Apple's digital assistant, Siri.

Nothing says "tribute" like having a horse named after you, and that's exactly what a New York horse rescue farm did to honor Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. In return, Wozniak paid a quick visit to Pattersonville, New York's "Peaceful Acres Horses" this past Wednesday to meet up with "Woz," a Belgian crossbreed rescued just this past March.

Of course, the normally outspoken Wozniak had a few things to say about Apple technology after his hour-long tour.

First, the horse. According to the Times Union's Bryan Fitzgerald, Wozniak is a self-proclaimed animal lover who, "often speaks to animals and is moved to tears when he watches films in which they suffer." He had heard about the plight of the aforementioned horse via a massive email message sent from Peaceful Acres Horses, which said that the horse would have been killed if enough money wasn't raised to support it. Wozniak made the donation, and the rescue farm decided to both name it after him in tribute and invite him to take a tour of the facility.

"The man associated more with machines than animals cooed and whispered to his namesake horse for a few minutes when they met," Fitzgerald wrote

Afterwards, Wozniak's talked a bit about Apple's Siri program, and he shared some criticism he holds for the iPhone's (and now, iPad's) virtual assistant.

"A lot of people say Siri. I say poo-poo," said Wozniak, when asked to address criticisms that Apple's recent Worldwide Developers Conference didn't seem very exciting this year. "I was using it to make reservations long before Apple bought it."

"I would say, 'Siri, what are the five largest lakes in California?' and it would come up, one, two, three, four, five. And I would ask 'What are the prime numbers greater than 87?' and they would come up all in a row. That was pretty incredible," Wozniak said.

Prior to Apple purchasing Siri, Wozniak used to allegedly brag to his friends and family that the app was the future of the industry: voice recognition that allowed you to speak to your device in "normal" ways, combined with the app's human-like conversational elements.

Once Apple purchased the technology, however, Wozniak's interactions with Siri became less positive: "He then paused, lifted his right hand and gave it a big thumbs down," Fitzgerald said.

"'What are the largest lakes in California?' I'd get all these lakefront properties. And I'd say 'What are the prime numbers greater than 87?' And I'd get prime rib," Wozniak said.

David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he has since rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors.
His rise to (self-described) fame in the world of tech journalism began during his stint as an associate editor at Maximum PC, where his love of cardboard-based PC construction and meetings put him in...
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